Tiered Badges

Interestingly, Dannette didn’t simply create a set of badges and say “here, have at it.” She designed a simple (yet effective) tiering system:

“Unlocking badges accumulated points for the attendees with the higher tier badges earning more points. Once an attendee had accumulated 250 points they were eligible for an iPad prize drawing. To start attendees off we awarded the “Welcome to VPS” badge which awarded 50 points upon first login. We then aligned badges to our goals so there were badges for watching different types of sessions for at least 15 minutes, submitting evaluations, and asking questions.”

Dannette’s tiering system plays into the status mechanic, whereby users are “motivated by trying to reach a higher level or status,” to gain more recognition, privilege or benefit (as documented by Gamification.org).

“I was pleasantly surprised by the number of comments about going after the maximum points available as a matter of pride.” — Dannette Veale

Results

Gamification works! Results that Dannette published:

Average duration for a 30 minute executive chat was approximately 20 mins

Average duration for a 2 hour general session was approximately 90 mins

600+ questions asked during the 3 day event

30% average evaluation submission rate (this is up considerably from 2011)